So, it happened - a giant meteorite fell on the Earth, the villains invented a merciless virus destroying people, a new tyrant unleashed a nuclear war. In general, the plot of any post-apocalyptic film: humanity has died out, only you, the only and last representative of the genus, remain. At this point, you may need to know what kind of civilization will come after ours. What kind of creatures will they be? Who will they look like and how will they develop? Will they end up as badly as we do?
Rats
Oh yes, rats love disasters! It doesn't matter where, how, under what circumstances - if a global, large-scale disaster happened, you can be sure: the rats will be there. At the moment of extinction of humanity, rats will begin to seize cities, devouring everything in their path.
According to Richard Dawkins, a British ethologist, biologist who studies the processes of evolution, when rats eat everything that is left of people (both ourselves and our food), and then they can begin to evolve dramatically. The process will be as follows: the apocalypse will cause a sharp spike in the growth of the rat population, but when the food runs out, they will have to fight each other. This will lead to a rapid change in generations of rats. If the catastrophe that destroyed people is associated with radiation, then the rats will begin to mutate literally before our eyes. The newfound isolation of some rat populations from others in the post-human and post-transport world will also contribute to this. In other words, the ideal conditions for evolution will come.
Given that the social structures of rats are quite developed, and these rodents have a high level of intelligence, they have a good chance of taking the place of a human on the planet. Of course, it will take millions of years, but Richard Dawkins is sure that intelligent beings of the future, descended from rats, are more real than we think.
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The Bears
Man, of course, is not the most powerful predator, but certainly a virtuoso predator. Large and dangerous beasts retreated before the weapons that we had invented to protect our own lives. But as soon as a person is taken out of the game, animals such as lions, tigers and bears will appear in the foreground, ready to fight for survival. If left for a long enough time in a state of struggle for dominance on the planet, they will begin to evolve, developing their intelligence. This is the opinion of Ashley Bennison, a young scientist at the University of Exeter in England. In an interview with PS Mag, he noted that of the large mammals, he considers bears to be the most promising candidates for a dominant role on the planet. The fact is that with the disappearance of man, the number of herbivores will increase (imagine how many individuals will be "free",which we consume every day), which, in turn, will expand the menu for predators - and make them even stronger. Against this background of food abundance, smart mammals will have a good chance of development. It was the richness and availability of food that contributed to the leap that humans have made from “smart enough predator-gatherers of primates” to modern humans. The same leap could be made by bears.
Dogs
If you have been to developing countries, you have probably seen that dogs already "control" certain parts of the planet. In large cities like Mumbai, huge flocks of feral dogs have occupied some areas, making it simply impossible to enter at night. Only in this city for the period 1994-2015. more than 1.3 million people have been attacked by dogs, including 434 deaths. At the same time, it is nominally believed that the city is ruled by people.
Once people are destroyed by some deadly virus, dogs can take over cities. The ruins of megacities will be flooded with giant dog packs. The former "friend of man" will dig trenches and fight with rats for the remains of meat. A global catastrophe could provoke a massive increase in the dog population, and this would lead to curious consequences.
Already, dogs are known as one of the most intelligent animals. They have difficult social relationships, they experience emotions that are in many ways similar to human emotions, for example, they are capable of empathy. The dog's brain is, metaphorically speaking, a fertile ground for intellectual development and evolution. At the very least, packs of dogs will be able to control our decaying cities only by their numbers.
Ants
Leaving the world of mammals, let us turn to insects. Ants, of course, are not like creatures that are capable of ousting humans on Earth. However, you should not be deceived about them: perhaps it is the ants that will rule the planet in the future.
Think about it: today the planet is inhabited by trillions of ants, while people are only 7.3 billion. Their total weight - if it could be placed on the scales of all people and all ants - is much greater than ours. And they are already outperforming many other creatures in terms of the development of intelligence. Yes, each ant individually cannot yet be compared with some animals, but if you take a whole anthill, then we are talking about the collective mind.
The collective consciousness of ants is a complex phenomenon. Ant colonies have already learned how to grow various types of mushrooms, as well as raise aphids as livestock. Ants use military tactics: for example, pushing the weakest members of the colony to the front, leaving the most powerful and fighting individuals in the rear. They have all the means to expand and conquer territories. At the moment, there is a super-colony of ants, covering almost the entire territory of California, waging a protracted war with a colony of a similar scale in Mexico. It would be difficult not to see the parallel with humanity here.
Pigs
"Planet of the Pigs" sounds like the title of some wild movie, although it is much closer to reality than, for example, "Planet of the Apes". Today, there are not so many monkeys left on the planet, but there are incomparably more pigs - there are simply a huge number of them. And they are not at all as stupid or as simple as they seem. The social structures of pigs are complex, and the pigs themselves show empathy. They use social influence, are able to manipulate other pigs, have long-term memory, and learn at an amazing speed. In addition, pigs are one of the few animals that mate for pleasure. By some estimates, pigs are even more intellectually advanced than dogs.
One leap to a huge, global population - and pigs can reach the stage at which we are now.
Octopus
While they are not on the platter, they are terrifying: they are very strong, smart, dexterous. They are able to learn through observation and can use psychological tricks. The octopus brain is one of the most highly developed among invertebrates, in addition, it is located around the esophagus, that is, even a headshot will not kill a mollusk. However, the reasons why an octopus can take the place of a human are very different. And they are truly terrifying.
In terms of body size, octopuses have a fairly large brain. And they also have large eyes, with a lens, similar to human ones, which allow you to see in about the same way as we see. A certain superiority is added to a person by having a thumb on his hands. The octopus has eight of these tools: their tentacles are much more functional than our hands.
Octopuses observe each other's behavior, mastering new habits - this can be a good basis for creating complex social relations, forming a community of octopuses on the bones of the human race. In general, octopuses are so promising for world domination that biologist Professor Russell Burke wonders why they have not yet taken over the world.
Raccoons
If you think that raccoons are not human at all, you are mistaken. Most living creatures were on this list, therefore they meet two important criteria: they have complex social structures and a developed intellect. Raccoons have all this. In addition, they have already encountered the difficulties that a person experiences - especially in an urban environment. As soon as these difficulties suddenly arise - for example, a slowly developing apocalypse will occur - raccoons will be ready for an evolutionary leap, for mutations that will help develop intelligence.
Yes, the likelihood that raccoons will evolve to the point where they start building skyscrapers and designing cars is low. But the idea that they will be able to smoothly evolve into some larger forms, prone to dominance, is real. Like rats, raccoons will take millions of years for such an evolution, but if humanity disappears, these years will fly by.
Cockroaches
It is these unpleasant creatures that can really endure a nuclear explosion, and 10% of cockroaches are generally not susceptible to lethal doses of radiation. Cockroaches develop at a breakneck pace: for example, they have developed resistance to toxic disinfectants in just a decade. It is as if the human immunity in just a few generations became immune to potassium cyanide. Yes, and they also multiply at an incredible rate. It turns out that cockroaches are not only able to survive after a nuclear war, but also adequately support their population. Will they be able to reach the human level in the development of intelligence? Hardly. But give them a couple of million years to develop without any competition - and who knows …
Monkey
Monkeys cannot boast of a large population; the number of individuals of most species is not numerous. For this reason, they don't have as many chances to dominate the planet as, say, dogs. However, it is worth thinking about this scenario: what if the apocalypse is the result of some kind of program to protect monkeys, during which their numbers increase incredibly? Then, indeed, you will not have to wait until the body of the last person cools down for the monkeys to seize power.
Large primates - gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos - are very intelligent. Really smart. They can be taught sign language and other types of communication. Their community has a very complex hierarchy, worthy of competition with the human. They use tools, show empathy, are able to learn by observing others, and can plan. There are cases when monkeys hunted with weapons. They are almost the same as us, only larger. They already have everything to catch up with a person in intellectual development. Rather, they still need something else: the complete absence of man on the planet. So, if there is a nuclear explosion, the monkeys will die out with us. But if a virus appears that kills only a person, and kills everyone without exception, then the era of monkeys will come.
Wolbachia
This is a parasitic bacterium, and it has a chance to rule the world not only when humanity dies out. She has these chances now. Wolbachia controls the fate of a thousand individuals. The bacteria live inside the cells of insects (almost 2/3) and arthropods, and their power over their hosts is amazing. So, bacteria can change the sex of a creature (!) From male to female, increasing their chances of spreading (with the help of eggs that females lay). Inside more complex organisms, they are able to kill the embryo, if it is a male, or change the seed so that it will be able to conceive only females. They can integrate into the host's DNA, causing various evolutionary mutations. In other words, the evolution of many creatures is in their hands. Of course, Wolbachia is not dangerous as an organism capable of intellectual development. But in a post-apocalyptic world, they may not need this intelligence to decide the fate of other creatures and become the dominant living creature on the planet.